


Bright before it beat the water

by sootnose



Series: Nordic Falls without the Falls [1]
Category: Finnish Mythology, Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon), Scandinavian Folklore
Genre: Gen, Hulder!Wirt, M/M, Neck!Bill Cipher, Older Dipper Pines, Threats of Drowning, older wirt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 08:56:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8199007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sootnose/pseuds/sootnose
Summary: Wirt doesn't appreciate what Bill considers entertainment, especially not when it involves the risk of anyone being drowned.





	

Wirt reached the clearing of Bill’s pond later than usual for Bill and Dipper’s meetups.

He had eventually reached the point where he didn’t think Bill would turn around and drown Dipper, so he wasn’t alarmed when he didn’t immediately hear or see either of the two. He dropped his backpack next to a rock near the shore and looked around, meaning to call for Dipper when a figure in the water caught his eye.

The call died on Wirt’s lips. Dipper noticed him, though, and lifted his head a little to grin at the Hulder while giving a wave of his hand.

“Hi, Wirt!”

Dipper took a breath to keep himself from sinking further below the surface, and relaxed back into his floating.

Wirt moved restlessly at the shore, worried to see Dipper so casually in the water but in his fear of annoying Bill or Dipper refrained from verbalising his worry.

A pair of hands crept out of the water around Dipper’s waist, sliding across skin, and Dipper huffed an exasperated laughter – and then yelped when he was pulled under.

Wirt felt like his heart stopped. He yelled for Dipper and ran into the water after him. He didn’t make it more than a few steps before Dipper resurfaced, looking mussed up and surprised, but not alarmed.

“Dipper?”

Dipper covered his mouth with his fingers before focusing on Wirt, hastily lowering his hand when he saw Wirt in the shallow water. Bill’s head popped up next to Dipper, and Wirt was certain the water covering the lower half of his face hid a predatory grin. Bill glanced pointedly at Wirt’s feet. Wirt froze.

Dipper watched the two, somewhat concerned. Bill hadn’t given indication of wanting to do away with Wirt, but he was unpredictable. That considered, perhaps agreeing to join Bill in the water hadn’t been the most thought through idea, but he was alive.

After what seemed like minutes Bill turned to Dipper, rising out of the water enough to grin at him.

“Hey Dip–”

Wirt took a step back as soon as Bill’s attention was elsewhere. A hand grabbed his ankle before he even finished the step and unbalanced him, toppling him on his back, still more than half in the shallow water.

Bill tsked and waved a finger chidingly, ignoring Dipper’s alarmed yell of “Wirt!” and then the more indignant “ _Bill!_ ”

“I didn’t say you could go anywhere, did I?” Bill said.  
Wirt swallowed with difficulty.

“I-I–”, he tried. He didn’t know what he tried to say.

“‘I-I–’”, Bill mocked as he let go of Wirt’s ankle and slid back into deeper water casually as if he hadn’t just scared the hell out of both Wirt and Dipper. 

“The water’s warm, you should join us”, Bill continued, stretching languidly before falling back into a swim and looking upside-down at Dipper.

“Right, Dipper?”

Dipper crossed his arms and gave the Neck a hard stare. Neither of them looked over while Wirt scrambled the rest of the way out of the water and onto the shore.

Wirt slid shakily into a sitting position behind a rock that hid him from Bill and Dipper’s sights and tried to get his breathing under control. He could faintly hear Dipper hiss something to the Neck, then the sound of someone wading through the water.

“Asshole”, Dipper grumbled in Bill’s direction as he climbed out of the water and knelt next to Wirt.

“I’m sorry”, Dipper said and gingerly placed his hand on Wirt’s arm.  
Wirt shook his head a little and buried his face into his arms crossed over his knees.

“Sorry!” Bill echoed cheerily, flopping over the top of the rock. Wirt regretted not having moved further away from the pond. Dipper glared at the Neck.

“What? I thought he’d like to hear it”, Bill added, and Wirt peeked over his arms at Dipper, who still frowned at the Neck.

“It’d hold more relevance if you _meant_ it”, Wirt bit out and leaned his forehead back against his arms. Dipper shifted next to him to sit closer, bunching Wirt’s damp shirt between his fingers.

“I guess I have to appreciate the gesture”, Wirt muttered dryly into his arms. He was a bit surprised to find that Bill didn’t immediately crow about this concession from the Hulder. Wirt glanced behind himself to find a pensive Bill.

“It’s not even funny to fuck with you when I have to listen to you whine afterwards”, the Neck, well, whined.

Wirt had to huff a disbelieving laugh at this. “Unbelievable.” He stood up and dusted himself off, picking at his wet clothes.

“You could borrow my shirt?” Dipper suggested. 

Wirt glanced to the paler brunet, then to Bill, and shrugged and shook his head.

“I think I’ll go home”, he said and headed for his backpack. Dipper scrambled up to his feet and picked up his clothes from where he’d piled them.

Wirt stopped in his tracks with his backpack slung on his shoulder when Dipper popped up next to him. He was still in the middle of buttoning up his plaid shirt, and Wirt eyed him questioningly.

“I’m coming too. I’ll see you later, Bill?”

Bill still laid on his rock, now inexplicably clothed, and waved his hand dismissively. “Right, whatever.”

“Don’t sulk”, Dipper chided.

“Who’s sulking?” Bill challenged, flashing a sudden grin before slipping back into the pond. The water wasn’t disturbed in the slightest by the Neck sinking beneath the surface.

Dipper shook his head in exasperation, scattering a couple droplets from his curls. He picked up his boots by the strings and shrugged up at Wirt with a lopsided grin.

“Ready when you are”, he said. Wirt raised his brows at Dipper going barefoot and toed off his shoes in favour of taking Dipper’s example. The forest floor was more comfortable than soaked shoes any day, for all there were pine needles and cones and sticks scattered about.

**Author's Note:**

> For more information or to give me backpats, come talk to me on my tumblr [pineconerito](http://pineconerito.tumblr.com/) ♥


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